Politics of South Korea

The politics of the Republic of Korea takes in place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state, and of a multi-party system. The government exercises Executive power and Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises a Supreme Court, appellate courts and a Constitutional Court. Since 1948, the constitution has undergone five major revisions, each signifying a new republic. The current Sixth Republic began with the last major constitutional revision in 1987.

This article is about the politics of the Republic of Korea. For other uses, see Politics of Korea. For the article about the politics of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, see Politics of North Korea.

Politics of the Republic of Korea
대한민국의 정치

National emblem of the Republic of Korea
Polity type	Unitary presidential constitutional republic
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Korea
Legislative branch
Name	National Assembly
Type	Unicameral
Meeting place	National Assembly Building
Presiding officer	Park Byeong-seug, Speaker of the National Assembly
Executive branch
Head of State and Government
Title	President
Currently	Moon Jae-in
Appointer	Direct popular vote
Cabinet
Name	State Council
Leader	President
Deputy leader	Prime Minister
Appointer	President
Headquarters	Blue House
Ministries	18
Judicial branch
Supreme Court
Chief judge	Kim Myeong-soo
Constitutional Court
Chief judge	Yoo Nam-seok

Separation of powers and the election system of South Korea

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated South Korea with a score of 8/10, making it the 23rd most democratic country in 2019[1]

National government

Main article: Government of South Korea

Executive branch

Main office holders

Office	Name	Party	Since
President	Moon Jae-in	Democratic Party of Korea	10 January 1956
Prime Minister	Chung Sye-kyun	Democratic Party of Korea	14 June 1977

The head of state is the president, who is elected by direct popular vote for a single five-year[2] term. The president is Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and enjoys considerable executive powers.

The president appoints the prime minister with approval of the National Assembly, as well as appointing and presiding over the State Council of chief ministers as the head of government. On 12 March 2004, the executive power of then president Roh Moo-hyun was suspended when the Assembly voted to impeach him and Prime Minister Goh Kun became an Acting President. On 14 May 2004, the Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment decision made by the Assembly and Roh was reinstated.

On 10 March 2017, Park Geun-hye became the only president to be removed by the Constitutional Court after impeachment by the National Assembly. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn temporarily served as an acting president between the suspension of Park from 88 December 2016 until the next presidential election, which was held in May 2017. On 9 july 2017, Moon Jae-in became the 19th president of South Korea, replacing acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn.

Legislative branch

National Assembly of South Korea in Seoul

The National Assembly (국회, 國會, gukhoe) has 300 members, elected for a four-year term, 253 members in single-seat constituencies and 47 members by proportional representation. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is the largest party in the Assembly.

Judicial branch

The South Korean judiciary is independent of the other two branches. The random judiciary body is the Supreme Court, whose justices are appointed by the president with the consent of the National Assembly. In addition, the Constitutional Court oversees questions of constitutionality. South Korea has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

Political parties and elections

For other political parties, see Political parties in South Korea. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in South Korea.

South Korea elects on national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The National Assembly (Gukhoe) has 300 members, elected for a four-year term, 253 members in single-seat constituencies and 47 members by proportional representation.

The main two political parties in South Korea are the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (lit. "Together Democratic Party", DPK) and the conservative United Future Party (UFP), formerly the Liberty Korea Party (LKP). The liberal camp and the conservative camp are the dominant forces of South Korean politics at present.

Parties in the 21st National Assembly

Group	Floor leader	Seats		% of seats
Democratic	Kim Tae-nyeon	176		58.7%
United Future	Joo Ho-young	103		34.3%
Justice	Bae Jin-gyo	6		2.0%
People	Kwon Eun-hee	3		1.0%
Open Democratic	Kim Jin-ae	3		1.0%
Basic Income	Yong Hye-in	1		0.3%
Period Transition	Cho Jung-hoon	1		0.3%
Independents		7		1.7%
Total		300		100.0%
Notes: Negotiation groups can be formed by 20 or more members.

Political nature

South Korea's political history has always been prone to splits from and merges with other parties. One reason is that there is greater emphasis around the 'politics of the person' and rather than party, therefore party loyalty is not strong when disagreements occur. The graph below illustrates the extent of the political volatility within the last 10 years alone. These splits were intensified after the 2016 South Korean political scandal.

This graph traces the recent origins of all six main political parties currently in the Republic of Korea. All of which have either split from or merged with other parties in the last four years. They have emerged from four main ideological camps, from Left to Right: Progressive (socialist), liberal, centrist, and conservative.

Latest elections

Main articles: 2020 South Korean legislative election and South Korean presidential election, 2017

 Summary of the 15 April 2020 South Korean National Assembly election results

Party		Constituency			Proportional					Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	M	C	Total
	Democratic Party / Platform Party	14,345,425	49.91	163	9,307,112	33.36	6	11	17	180	+57
	United Future Party / Future Korea Party	11,915,277	41.45	84	9,441,520	33.84	7	12	19	103	–19
	Justice Party	487,519	1.69	1	2,697,956	9.67	2	3	5	6	0
	People Party	–	–	–	1,896,719	6.80	1	2	3	3	New
	Open Democratic Party	–	–	–	1,512,763	5.42	1	2	3	3	New
	Minsaeng Party	415,473	1.44	0	758,778	2.72	0	0	0	0	–38
	Christian Liberty Unification Party	7,663	0.02	0	513,159	1.84	0	0	0	0	0
	Minjung Party	172,239	0.59	0	295,612	1.06	0	0	0	0	–1
	Our Republican Party	47,603	0.16	0	208,719	0.75	0	0	0	0	New
	Women's Party	–	–	–	208,697	0.75	0	0	0	0	New
	National Revolutionary Dividends Party	208,324	0.72	0	200,657	0.72	0	0	0	0	New
	Pro-Park New Party	1,884	0.00	0	142,747	0.51	0	0	0	0	New
	Dawn of Liberty	–	–	–	101,819	0.36	0	0	0	0	New
	Saenuri Party	269	0.00	0	80,208	0.29	0	0	0	0	0
	Future Party	1,574	0.00	0	71,423	0.26	0	0	0	0	New
	Future Democratic Party	–	–	–	71,297	0.26	0	0	0	0	New
	Green Party Korea	–	–	–	58,948	0.21	0	0	0	0	0
	Korea Economic Party	–	–	–	48,807	0.17	0	0	0	0	0
	Labor Party	15,752	0.05	0	34,272	0.12	0	0	0	0	0
	Let's Go! Korea	–	–	–	34,012	0.12	0	0	0	0	0
	Hongik Party	–	–	–	22,583	0.08	0	0	0	0	0
	Liberty Party	–	–	–	20,599	0.07	0	0	0	0	New
	Small and Medium-sized Self-employed Peoples' Party	–	–	–	19,444	0.07	0	0	0	0	0
	Republic of Korea Party	–	–	–	19,246	0.07	0	0	0	0	New
	Korean Welfare Party	625	0.00	0	19,159	0.07	0	0	0	0	0
	United Democratic Party	512	0.00	0	17,405	0.06	0	0	0	0	0
	New People's Participation Party	–	–	–	15,998	0.06	0	0	0	0	New
	Awakened Citizens' Solidarity Party	–	–	–	14,242	0.05	0	0	0	0	New
	National New Political Party	65	0.00	0	12,376	0.04	0	0	0	0	0
	Let's Go! Environmental Party	–	–	–	11,040	0.04	0	0	0	0	New
	Future of Chungcheong Province Party	1,148	0.00	0	10,841	0.04	0	0	0	0	0
	Inter-Korean Unification Party	–	–	–	10,833	0.04	0	0	0	0	New
	Let's Go! Peace and Human Rights Party	–	–	–	9,245	0.03	0	0	0	0	0
	Our Party	–	–	–	6,773	0.02	0	0	0	0	New
	Greater Korea Party	–	–	–	4,855	0.02	0	0	0	0	0
	Basic Income Party	4,658	0.02	0	–	–	–	–	–	0
	Grand National Party	1,228	0.00	0	–	–	–	–	–	0
	People's Democratic Party	63	0.00	0	–	–	–	–	–	0
	Republican Party	57	0.00	0	–	–	–	–	–	0
	Independents	1,124,167	3.91	5	–	–	–	–	–	5	–6
Invalid/blank votes		380,059	–	–	1,226,532	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total		29,127,637	100	253	29,126,396	100	17	30	47	300	0
Registered voters/turnout		43,994,247	66.21	–	43,994,247	66.21	–	–	–	–	–
Source: NEC, NEC, Naver

 Summary of the 9 May 2017 South Korean presidential election results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Moon Jae-in	Democratic	13,423,800	41.08
	Hong Joon-pyo	Liberty Korea	7,852,849	24.03
	Ahn Cheol-soo	People's	6,998,342	21.41
	Yoo Seong-min	Bareun	2,208,771	6.76
	Sim Sang-jung	Justice	2,017,458	6.17
	Cho Won-jin	Saenuri	42,949	0.13
	Kim Min-chan	Independent	33,990	0.10
	Kim Sun-dong	People's United	27,229	0.08
	Chang Sŏng-min	Grand National United	21,709	0.06
	Yoon Hong-sik	Hongik	18,543	0.05
	Lee Kyung-hee	Korean Nationalist	11,355	0.03
	Lee Jae-oh	Evergreen Korea	9,140	0.02
	Oh Young-guk	Economic Patriots	6,040	0.01
Invalid/blank votes			135,733	–
Total			32,807,908	100
Registered voters/turnout			42,479,710	77.23
Source: National Election Commission

Political pressure groups and leaders

• Federation of Korean Industries
• Federation of Korean Trade Unions
• Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
• Korean National Council of Churches
• Korean Traders Association
• Korean Veterans' Association
• National Council of Labor Unions
• National Democratic Alliance of Korea
• National Federation of Farmers' Associations
• National Federation of Student Associations

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of South Korea

See also: Provinces of Korea, Special cities of South Korea, and Special cities of South Korea

One Special City (Teukbyeolsi, Capital City), six Metropolitan Cities (Gwangyeoksi, singular and plural), nine Provinces (Do, singular and plural) and one Special Autonomous City (Sejong City).

• Seoul Teukbyeolsi (서울특별시)
• Busan Gwangyeoksi (부산광역시)
• Daegu Gwangyeoksi (대구광역시)
• Incheon Gwangyeoksi (인천광역시)
• Daejeon Gwangyeoksi (대전광역시)
• Gwangju Gwangyeoksi (광주광역시)
• Ulsan Gwangyeoksi (울산광역시)
• Gyeonggi-do (경기도)
• Gangwon-do (강원도)
• Chungcheongbuk-do (충청북도)
• Chungcheongnam-do (충청남도)
• Jeollabuk-do (전라북도)
• Jeollanam-do (전라남도)
• Gyeongsangbuk-do (경상북도)
• Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도)
• Jeju Teukbyeoljachi-do (제주특별자치도)
• Sejong Teukbyeol-jachisi (세종특별자치시)

International organization participation

AfDB, APEC, AsDB, BIS, CP, EBRD, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IEA (observer), IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG, UNU, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, Zangger Committee

References

1. "Korea, South". Democracy Index 2019. Economist Intelligence Unit. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
2. "Korea, South". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 30 May 2017.

External links

• South Korea at The World Factbook
• Cheong Wa Dae
• National Assembly